[OPLINLIST] Index Your Obituaries Online

[Becky Hill]

Have Who do You Think You Are and Finding  Your Roots TV shows brought in a
constant stream of people searching their ancestors?  Why not make you and
your patron's life easier by organizing your local dead people and indexing
them into the Ohio Obituary Index?

 

Make your genealogical collection a source of revenue by being a part of the
web-based Ohio Obituary Index,  <http://www.rbhayes.org/index>
www.rbhayes.org/index, The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center hosts
this award-winning web site that you can join, along with 63 other Ohio
Public Libraries. Once your obituaries are  indexed online people will find
them and either come to your library or order them. We are now partnered
with Ancestry.com , Archives.com and FindMypast.com and the exposure to our
data has increased exponentially because of those affiliations although our
site will always remain free to view.

 

The Hayes Presidential Center will be demonstrating its Ohio Obituary Index
at the Ohio Library Council's Expo in Columbus on Wednesday and Thursday,
October 8 & 9th  http://olc.org/conventionandexpo.php. I will be there to
greet old friends who are currently partners and encourage other libraries
to join us in this web-based index of newspaper obituaries and other items,
such as local history collections of clippings, wills and estates, funeral
records, etc.

 

Why re-invent the wheel and tax your own too-busy technology department when
we already have done the work, created a very user-friendly interface, and
attracted millions of viewers? Started in 2000, the online Index currently
receives almost 200,000 page views a month  and  is cited as a valuable
genealogical tool in books and referred to by over 300 other web sites. At
this time, we have about 3 million names in the database from Fremont to
Marietta and citations to over 3 million newspaper sources. The Ohio
Obituary Index was listed as the Best State Website in 2013 by Family Tree
Magazine.  

 

For $1500, a public library or historical society can join the Hayes
partnership, receive training on how to enter their data, and start
inputting their names into the web-based system.  The only other charge is
an annual fee of $300 for website maintenance and quality control. If you
have an existing database, it is possible for an additional fee to import
those records into our system.

 

Check to see if your Library Director, other staff member or you will be
attending the OLC 2014 Expo and stop by booth #105 to see the Ohio Obituary
Index and the administrative side of the database in action.  There will be
chocolate, too!  If you have any questions before or after, please contact
me at  <mailto:bhill at rbhayes.org> bhill at rbhayes.org or 800-998-7737.

 

 

Becky Hill 

 

 

Rebecca B. Hill

Head Librarian

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center

Spiegel Grove

Fremont, OH 43420

 

 <tel:419.332.2081%20ext.%20231> 419.332.2081 ext. 231

 <mailto:bhill at rbhayes.org> bhill at rbhayes.org

 <http://www.rbhayes.org> www.rbhayes.org

 <tel:419.332.4952> 419.332.4952 (fax)

 

Rutherford B. Hayes Center Library is open Tuesday - Saturdays, 9 to 5

 

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